Kimberly Jackson
Appearances
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
So we were always told her name was Zinni. It was just such a mystery. Such a mystery as to what happened to her. With just about everybody else, you know, there was a beginning to the story and there was an end to the story. And they have the whole middle. There wasn't that with her. There was not that with her. There was always obituaries and always, of course, like I said, stories to be told.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
But hers was always that sense of unknown. And with that, like I said, a little twinge of sadness, but with a lot of love, a little twinge of sadness. And it just felt like, you know, it was just a puzzle missing.
Under Yazoo Clay
A Southern Ethos
Oh, yeah, because my grandma was big on visiting cemeteries. So, yeah, we were, oh, yeah. Thank you.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
My grandma was big on visiting cemeteries. It was the whole thing for them to have the churches to get together and clean the cemetery, you know, mow the lawn at the cemetery, change out the flowers. That was the whole thing. That was a day set aside to do that kind of thing. Look, I'm a little kid. I'm at all the funerals.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
It felt like, you know, there was always obituaries and always, of course, like I said, stories to be told. But hers was always that sense of unknown.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
It was a happy memory, but it was only one memory of her baking this cake for her birthday. And to then go from that to news of her passing, it's just a lot of gaps. And a sense of, a little bit sense of longing. Now she would never really dwell on it too long. Like if she mentioned her, she would say a little something and that was it. So she wasn't, she didn't ever shy away from it.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
But there was just always this sense of that's all there is. You know, that like there's, this is the end of the story. There's nothing else. But with a lot of love, but there were two ends of sadness.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
But they never had that. They never tried to keep it a secret. It wasn't a secret that she went to Whitfield, as they called it. There was never they never did. Never did. And I will say that, yeah, it wasn't something they tried to hide. They were always very upfront about that.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
As time went on, they called it Whitfield. So in our minds, we're thinking that she was buried where Whitfield is, out in Pearl somewhere.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
My grandmother attended Tougaloo. So when I think about it, she was not that far from where her mother was buried. And she had no idea. No idea that that's where she was buried.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
I see an ad in the Carthage Genium, which is our local newspaper, and it mentioned that the following people were believed to have been buried at Asylum Hill. And I see her name. And so it had a contact number. It turned out to be lighter. And so that's how I found out. You ever watch Roots? You know how Alex Haley, when he made it to Africa and he went to the...
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
to the village where Kunta Kinte was born, and he was like, I found you, you know. That's how I felt. I was like, oh my God, we found her, I found her. And I let my family know, you know, and you know, the whole, you know, I was like, oh my God, I told my mom. First I told her, I was like, your grandma sent a name in the paper, you know. And yeah, so it was, I felt,
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
a sense of relief, but just to know that, you know, it was just mind boggling that to think that, to see her name in print, to know that, oh, there's more to the story. I'm able to fill in the gaps, just mind-blowing. Because think about this, by this time, my mama's in her late 70s, you know, finding all of this out.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
And so, like I said, all of a sudden, Zenni went from being, you know, a story to a real, you know, person. I mean, think about a person with a whole entire life. You know, not just, you know... creating a home life with, you know, her grandfather and, you know, having my, you know, because basically it was, when they heard of Grandma Zinni, it was the same way she told it to us.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
You know, there was no extra stories, you know what I'm saying? And so to go from, wow, so, you know, there was an actual, they go from her being admitted to the hospital to her dying. No news of what happened while she was there, no nothing.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
For lack of a better word, completeness. My people always talked about their family. always, both sides, you know, always was all of this talk about, remember what grandma did, remember what uncle so-and-so did, a cousin so-and-so. There was always these stories, always. And when it came, and so it makes me, like I said, it makes me give a sense of completion in a way.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
Finding Zen, I just really feel like, ah, I got it. This is, it fills me to finally know that there was an end to her story, whether happy or sad, there was an end because it didn't, it was just such a mystery. Such a mystery as to what happened to her. With just about everybody else, you know, there was a beginning to the story and there was an end to the story. And they have the whole middle.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
There's a grove of trees in the grassy area. If I'm not mistaken, that's where she would have been buried. I ride by there now and think, you know, she's there. I think about it as her burial place, you know, when I drive by. I look out there and I think, you know, there she is.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
And that's what my grandmother and her siblings did not ever have, was a sense of, there she is, or we can go out there and visit her when we would like to, or drive by. They did not have that sense at all. They never knew where she was.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
Now somebody, your children were raised with love. So, you know, don't think that, you know, they were just out there in the world left to their own devices. No, they were raised in the manner you would have want them to be raised. They were loved in the way that you would want them to be loved. We did not ever forget about you. You were always loved. You were always missed.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
I feel at peace knowing that I found her. You know, I felt a sense of peace knowing that we found her. So right now, I'm just, you know, living in that peace.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
And it just felt like, you know, it was just a puzzle missing. You know, it feels like now the piece, like I have the piece of the puzzle that I just felt like my family needed.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
Right now, pre-K through second grade, they think you're a superstar. Every day, it's like walking on a red carpet every day.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
That was clear even when we were trying to pin her down for an interview time.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
So, thank you for making this drive. You're welcome. Like I said, my aunt and uncle in... They're on the third floor? Yeah, they're right in there. Oh, that's perfect. Okay, great.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
One gentleman from the community said, I'm going to walk you home, but let me run out here to get a lamp. to her great-uncle's fashion choices. He wore these knickerbockers and thought that he was looking real sharp with these knickerbocker pants on, you know. So they would laugh and they would joke at him and say, you think you something with these knickerbockers on, you know, whatever.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
What do you know about her? bits and pieces. So, uh, since all of this has occurred, I found out a little bit more. Uh, so I always, we were always told her name was Zinni. She married my grandfather, Monroe G. And they had four children. They had three boys and then a girl, which was my grandmother, Marie. So they lived in Conway and, um,
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
My great-grandmother was born and raised in another community in Leakey County called Pilgrim Rest. And so a lot of her family members are buried in the Pilgrim Rest church cemetery. Except for her, but I'll get to that.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
And as the story goes, when her mother passed away, she became, I guess, so despondent with grief that that she slowly started to, her mental health started to decline. My grandmother always said that she had a nervous breakdown.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
One cousin said that she would leave home, she would put my grandma on her hip and take off walking. And, you know, people be like, you know, where is it? You know, looking for her, where is it? And she would hitch a ride going to Pilgrim Rest. She would just take off, hitch a ride, go to Pilgrim Rest, you know, hitch a ride, get on, you know, and come back. They said she'd always come back.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
She'd always come back. My great-grandfather was able to get her admitted to Asylum Hill.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
According to my cousins, my great-grandfather went to visit her at least three times. And that must have been a hard track for that time. Exactly. Now that touched me, because when I think about, now this is Mississippi. In the late teens, you know, him traveling either by wagon or a Model T kind of a car, who knows? You know, to think about him getting back and forth three times.
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
Oh, he loved her. You can't tell me he didn't love her. If he was determined to visit her three times, yeah, he meant to bring her home. until he, for some reason, thought that he couldn't. He and her family were thinking, of course, that this was going to be a short-term stay, you know. And so her brother said to my great-grandfather, so when are you bringing Zenny home?
Under Yazoo Clay
Threads
And he said, I don't know. Every time I go, she gets further and further away from me. While she was at Asylum Hill, she passed away. So as far as I know, it was through a telegram is how he found out that she passed. As far as I know, he was not able to see her before she was buried. You know, they thinking she's going somewhere for a little while and she never comes back.